There’s a multitrillion-dollar black hole growing at the heart of the world’s financial markets. Negative-yielding debt – bonds worth less, not more, if held to maturity – is spreading to more corners of the bond universe, destroying potential returns for investors and turning the system as we know it on its head.

GGF 2019 report calculates total green bond issuance of EUR6.6bn in 2018, placing Germany fourth in annual country rankings after the US, China and France. The week is ending with the Financial Times reporting on German Finance Ministry’s moves towards issuing a green bund for 2020.

Italy and Austria have come to the market recently with ultra-long duration debt sales. It’s remarkable that the latter managed to get a 98-year issue away with a 1.17% interest rate. Kit Juckes, a currency analyst at Societe Generale SA, wrote on Tuesday: “the shortage of positive-yielding ‘safe’ bonds is still driving investors to overpay for what’s left.”

The underlying assets of the Libra fund will be made up of bank deposits and other low risk government securities. Customers who transfer value into the system will in effect give up their right to collect interest on their capital. Libra acknowledges that its basket-like nature will ensure the currency fluctuates vis-à-vis the value of trade currencies.

European banks have transferred 21.4 billion euros in revenues to the European Central Bank (ECB) in the 5 years since negative interest rates were introduced. The ECB introduced negative interest rates on June 11 2014, lowering its deposit rate to -0.1% in a bid to stimulate the economy, and negative interest rates are currently at -0.4%.

The volume of green bonds might appear insignificant when compared with the $6 trillion that we should be investing each year just to climate-proof our infrastructure. Investors will look for a size that is big enough to guarantee liquidity and index inclusion. This usually translates to around $300 million – a number that is simply too big for many companies.

Danish electricity producer Ørsted announces its intention to issue a benchmark-size subordinated green hybrid capital security with a maturity in 3017 and first par call date after 7 years and a benchmark-size euro-denominated green senior unsecured bond with a maturity of 12 years. Ørsted invited holders of its outstanding bonds to tender them for purchase.